Some health insurance companies are asking for big price increases next year and that has again riled critics of the federal health care law.
The numbers released last week came out of an Affordable Care Act requirement that insurance companies聽tell government regulators by June 1 if they鈥檙e requesting price hikes of more than 10 percent. But not all of the story is yet reported. Take, for example, Montana.
While that sounds scary, it turns out that Blue Cross Blue Shield in Montana is actually asking for large price hikes on just聽聽it wants to offer in the state. While it鈥檚 not yet public how many they鈥檒l offer in 2016, they currently offer聽.
, vice president for health reform at the consulting firm Avalere Health, has been digging into available numbers on insurance pricing across several states. She said such price hikes are聽. She鈥檚 not seeing anything like a 20 percent average increase in the price of monthly premiums.
鈥淭hose are not necessarily the plans that hold the bulk of enrollment,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o, while some of those plans may be going up a lot in price, that doesn鈥檛 mean a lot of enrollees are necessarily affected.鈥�
In the handful of states where data is available (Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia, Vermont, Washington state and Washington, D.C.), Pearson says the majority of people buying health coverage on exchanges won鈥檛 face serious sticker shock.
鈥淲e have seen that about 6 percent average rate increases are expected for 2016,鈥� Pearson says.
As Avalere looks at the less expensive plans, she adds, 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing anywhere from a 5 percent increase for the lowest-cost plan available, to a 1 percent increase for the second-lowest-cost plan available. So we鈥檙e really looking at very modest increases 鈥� very consistent with what we saw from 2014 to 2015.鈥�
Pearson also points out that the price increases 鈥� big or small 鈥� are by no means final. They鈥檙e requests from insurance companies. And, in some states, insurance commissioners have the ability to negotiate with the companies to moderate rate increases. The actual prices of health plans being sold on the exchanges will be final this fall.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes , and .